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By Daniel B. Wood
A national Rasmussen
Reports poll found that 56 percent of Americans back legal marijuana
regulated like tobacco or alcohol.
Trends show support on
the upswing
A new national poll shows a clear majority of Americans in
favor of legalizing and regulating marijuana – "the strongest
support ever recorded," according to one pro-marijuana activist.
The Rasmussen poll found that 56 percent of respondents
favored legalizing and regulating marijuana similar to the way alcohol
and tobacco cigarettes are currently regulated. Thirty-six percent
were opposed.
Critics have dismissed the survey, saying its questions were
asked in a particularly leading fashion – a charge that Rasmussen
contests. But experts who track the issue say the poll is consistent
with the overall trend of steadily rising acceptance of marijuana
use.
Despite California’s failure
to pass Proposition 19 in 2010 – which
would have legalized recreational use – some state may legalize
marijuana soon, perhaps as early as this November, says Robert
MacCoun, a professor at
the University of California at Berkeley School of
Law, who follows marijuana laws. That means it is time to consider
shifting the debate from legalization to consideration of how it should
be done, he adds.
“For example, if we tax and regulate, should we tax by weight
or should we tax by THC content to discourage the most potent
products?” he asks. “Can we set taxes high enough to offset the
inevitable steep drop in prices or are we willing to allow consumption
to increase?”
Anti-marijuana groups say those questions are premature.
If Rasmussen had put facts in the question’s premises, the outcome
would have been the opposite, they say.
“If they had asked, ‘If you knew that a majority of homicide
convicts in New York had smoked
marijuana within 24 hours of their convictions, would you be in favor
of legalizing it?’ they would have gotten a far different answer,” says
David Evans, special adviser to the Drug Free America Foundation.
“These questions are so biased and leading, it’s embarrassing.”
He cites Question 10: “As long as they don’t do anything to
harm others, should individuals have the right to put whatever drugs or
medication they want into their own bodies?”
“This is a clearly very biased finding," he says. "They’ve
asked leading questions to get the responses they wanted.”
Beth Chunn, spokesman for Rasmussen Reports, disagrees.
She says the firm conducted the study the way it did to answer a
specific question: "This survey tested whether legalization and
regulation generated more support than legalizing and taxing. It did.”
Pro-marijuana groups are using the findings to argue that the Obama administration’s raids on state
medical marijuana dispensaries are not in concert with the public’s
wishes, and that politicians who don’t support further relaxation of
penalties are behind the times.
“This is the strongest support ever recorded in favor of
marijuana legalization in the US,” says Dale Gieringer, state
coordinator of California NORML (National
Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws). “It confirms a trend
that originated in 2009, when for the first time polls began to show
plurality support for legalization.”
He says the trend can be expected to continue, since younger
voters are more favorable toward ending marijuana prohibition than
older ones. “Politicians ought to take note of the changing political
wind," he says. "Marijuana legalization appears destined to become the
next big social freedom issue after gay rights.”
Other supporters of a more liberal US drug policy also seized on the poll. They
say this shows the drug war has failed, and that it’s time not only to
ease up on social attitudes while bringing in much needed revenue for
strapped government.
"Polling now consistently shows that more voters support
legalizing and regulating marijuana than support continuing a failed
prohibition approach,” says Neill Franklin, executive director of Law Enforcement Against
Prohibition (LEAP). "If the trends in public opinion continue in
the direction they are going, the day is not far away when supporting a
prohibition system that causes so much crime, violence, and corruption
is going to be seen as a serious political liability for those seeking
support from younger and independent voters."
The telephone survey of 1,000 likely voters was conducted
May 12.
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